Edible Sugar Cookie Dough

This is so quick and easy. I served with graham crackers but I think it would be better with a different kind of cracker or cookie.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup softened butter

1 1/3 cup and 1 tablespoon all purpose flour

3/4 cup white sugar

1-2 tablespoons water

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

In a medium bowl, cream together sugar and butter for 2-3 minutes until fluffy. Mix in flour and vanilla. Add water 1 tablespoon 1 at a time until you reach cookie dough consistency. Top with sprinkles!!

From willowbirdbaking.com

Baked Tacos

These are SOOO good and so easy!! We made some with ground turkey and wheat tortilla, ground beef with regular tortillas... So easy to customize.

Ingredients:

2 pounds ground beef

20 1/2 oz refried beans

6 ounces tomatoe sauce

12 small flour tortillas

3 tablespoons taco seasoning

Cheese

Anything else you like on tacos

Directions:

Brown ground beef completely and drain grease and return to skillet.  Over low heat, add refried beans, tomatoe sauce and taco seasoning. Mix well until warm.

Scoop into tortillas wich should be standing in a casserole dish. Sprinkle with cheese and bake at 375 for about 10 minutes. Tortillas should be getting crispy looking and cheese melted.

I can't upload pictures on here on my iPad. I will get on my computer when the girls go down for a nap.

From food.com

Baked Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal

I made this dish thinking it would be a good breakfast on a cold rainy morning. It isn't bad... But it isn't very pumpkiny or sweet. I thought about adding more pumpkin and some sugar next time. To sweeten it I added some sugar and cinnamon on top. The next morning I crumbled it up in a bowl, added milk and heated it up for a minute. Pretty good! Lucy likes it in her yogurt.

Ingrediants:

3 cups old fashioned oatmeal

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cloves

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/2 cup raisins (optional)

3 eggs

1/2 cup pumpkin purée

1/4 cup olive oil

1 1/2 cups milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Stir together all ingredients and pour into a well greased 8x10 baking dish. Bake 30-40 minutes or until knife comes out of center mostly clean.

You can freeze this dish and reheat in microwave with 1 teaspoon of water.

I'm not a great cook but I'm learning. Anyone have any ideas on how to make this dish a little tastier??

From barefeetinthekitchen.com

Baby Booty Wipes

Moms... This is the post for you!!!

I made baby wipes. At home. In ten minutes.

Hallelujah!!!

I wanted to see if it was worth the time/money spent on ingredients so I did the homework.

We were buying our wipes at Target (Up&Up brand) in bulk, 8 packs for $14.49. That equals $1.81 a pack. Doesn't sound too expensive, right?

What you will need for your homemade wipes:

Water: FREE

Coconut Oil 14 oz.: $5.99

Johnson&Johnson Baby Wash 9 oz.: $2.99

Brawny paper towels 8 pack: $8.99

= $17.97

Paper towels = 24 packs

Coconut Oil = 28 packs

Johnson&Johnson = 18 packs

(1 TBS= 1/2 oz.)

Cost of Ingrediants Per Pack:

Paper Towels: $0.37

Coconut Oil: $0.21

Johnson&Johnson: $0.16

=$0.74 a pack!!!

Here is the recipe:

1 cup HOT water

1 TBS coconut oil

1 TBS baby wash

1 roll paper towels

A sealable container large enough to hold wipes

1. Cut the roll with a large knife in thirds. If you like larger wipes cut the roll in half. My calculations on cutting the roll in thirds. If you cut the roll in half it will be $0.93 a pack. 

2. Pull the cardboard tube out of the rolls

3. In a measuring cup or bowl mix your HOT water, coconut oil and baby wash. You need hot water for this step because you need to completely melt the coconut oil.

4. Pour mixture into whatever container you will store the wipes in and insert your paper towels. Place lid on container.

5. Let it sit for about an hour so it will soak into the paper towels. I tipped mine upside down for a few minutes.

I have also heard of people unrolling the papertowels and folding them so they could use the wipes box. I'm thinking of trying that. 

Baby Ember has sensitive skin so I'm hoping this works well! Let's pray it works wonders. If you have questions let me know!!!

This recipe is from in-the-corner.com

** Also, prices and cost may vary depending on brand, size, store etc... 

Mission: Pinterest

Hello my friends!

I'm onto a new project in life...

If any of you are like me, you have millions of pins on Pinterest and have not done/made anything you liked enough to save. My mission is to make many of my pins and let you know how it turns out. I will be baking, crafting, etc...

I will post the recipes and tutorials for everything I do. It's going to take a long time since I am a working mom with two beautiful girls, but I'm going to do it!

If anyone wants to take this challenge with me let me know and we can keep each other on track. I have so many talented friends!!

Let's do this...

Life Lately...

Where do I even begin? It's been months since I've posted. Seems like things keep happening in our family and time isn't slowing down so we can process it all. Things have finally slowed down around here and I can fill you in on life lately. I believe my last post was about my birth story so we will begin there...

Lucy is such a blessing to us! We never thought we could love something or someone as much as we do. She sleeps through the night, eats like a champ... What else could you possibly hope for? When she was about 3 months old they told us she has a hemoglobin deficiency but not to worry about it because it was something we can deal with when she is 9 months old. It's something that is so common among Pacific Islander's (Lucy is 1/4 Filipino) that it's not a huge deal, nothing to worry about. We just had her 9 month appointment and she needs to go on iron for her deficiency and they will follow up next month to see where she is at! Other than that she is a big healthy girl... Just on the short side. :-)

When Lucy was 4 months old, she was a flower girl! Auntie Erin and Uncle Ty got married on October 26th!!! Ty is such a wonderful Uncle to Lucy. He teaches her all sorts of new things! She is a lucky little girl to have an awesome Auntie and Uncle. They live in Santa Rosa where Erin is a nurse and Ty works at the summer camp Erin and I grew up going to.

We found out in February that we will be welcoming another little baby to our family!! We were so shocked but so excited. We went in for the ultrasound to see how far along I was and it turned out that we were 8 weeks. Being pregnant and caring for a little one is HARD work but it is so worth it.

On April 24th, our step grandpa passed away. Dale was married to my mom's mom, Evelyn. He loved playing with little Lucy. He will be missed by many.

On May 11th my Great Uncle Chuck went to be with Jesus. He was my Grandma Evelyn's brother. He was such a sweet, funny and caring man. For our wedding present he gave us a Kitchen Witch... He got it at a garage sale. Ever since we received it, I have been trying to give it back. He loved the game we had going on. Uncle Chuck passed away from cancer after his chemo failed. 

Since Lucy was about 6 months old she has had two ear infections!! Those are rough to deal with but she is a trooper and recovers quickly. Pretty sure they are from teething because she now has 2 teeth!! Yay!

On June 2nd we went in for our anatomy scan to make sure everything was forming correctly and to see what we were having. We are having a BEAUTIFUL little girl named Ember Marie. We are already so in love with her and excited to see her in mid October. A day after the anatomy scan we got a phone call from our Dr. office. They told us that Ember has an enlarged left ventricle in her brain. I couldn't think of any questions to ask because I was upset. She kept reassuring me that it didn't seem to be a big deal and that they see this a lot and it can resolve itself. I had a Dr. appointment that day so I thought of some questions to ask then. When I brought it up my Dr. said she really wasn't worried about it. It was so minor that it could have even just been a shadow. It was slightly enlarged but just want to take precautions and do a second ultrasound to be sure. But everything else looked perfect and it should resolve itself. That made us feel so much better about it. We have a second ultrasound on July 2nd. Please, pray it has resolved itself and that we do not need to follow up with a specialist.

No matter the outcome we are prepared to love this baby and do what it takes to care for her. We know God would not give us more than we cannot handle and will take any challenges head on. So many people already love her more than anything and she is already one blessed little girl.

That's our life lately. We are blessed beyond measure and we are so thankful for our family and friends. You don't know how much we appreciate everyone and how so many friends have become family and love our little Lucy and baby Ember. We love you all.

Little Lucy and her best friend Mr. Roo

Lucy Faith

August 26, 2013

Marks one of the most special days of our lives. Our baby girl, Lucy Faith, was born. Here is the story of how our lives changed forever.

Our baby girl was due August 25, 2013 but decided she didn't want to come out yet... So, that evening I went to my parents for dinner and my mom and I went on a 2 mile walk. I was determined to hold my baby in my arms. 

The next morning I woke up at 5:30 am with some abdominal pain. At first I didn't think anything of it, just some pregnancy pain. I got up to use the bathroom and came back to bed. The pain got worse and I couldn't help but grab the sheets in pain. Coy opened his eyes in the middle of one of my contractions and I told him I was having them but I wasn't sure how far apart they were. We decided that he should go on with his day. He was going to the gym then to work. He left for the gym and about twenty minutes later I called him to come back home because the pain was getting more and more intense. We finished packing our bags, showered, did the dishes and cleaned up a little. Coy asked if we should sit down for an hour and time the contractions and I told him no... It was time.

We get to labor and delivery at about 10:15 am and they check me, I was 3 cm and my water was bulging which was making my back hurt so bad. All Coy could do was put pressure on the small of my back and hold my hand. They asked if I wanted any pain medication, I asked for an epidural. It took the anesthesiologist 30 minutes to get there but it felt like 3 hours... I was having contractions so close together by the time the anesthesiologist got there that they had to give me pain medication so that I could sit still. About 30 minutes later I started throwing up from the medication they had given me. Of course the bucket they gave me in case this happened was way too small and I puked all over myself and my bed. Needless to say, I felt disgusting even though they cleaned me up pretty well.

My doctor got there around 12:45 pm and checked me. She looked at me shocked because I was now 8 cm dilated! The doctor was going to come back when she was done with her appointments for the day to see how I was progressing. I wasn't feeling any pain from the contractions, just a lot of pressure every time I had one. Family came and spent time with us as the time passed. We loved having everyone come to see us and our little Lucy!

My doctor came back around 4:15 pm and sent everyone out of the room but Coy. She checked me and told me she wanted me to start pushing. I just looked at her like she was playing a mean joke on me. Coy ran out and got my mom and sister since I wanted them in the room. So, I started pushing! If it wasn't for the epidural I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much. I was joking during the breaks and able to push when needed.

My little Lucy was there in no time! She was born at 5:26 pm at  8 pounds 7 ounces and 20 inches long. She was perfectly healthy and beautiful! We did skin to skin for 4 hours. Coy and I have never fallen in love with anything or anyone so quickly. We were on cloud nine!

Our family came back in to see her but weren't able to hold her since we needed to do skin to skin. There were lots of tears and love for this little miracle. Everyone left around 8 pm.

She got her fist bath around 9:30 pm and after that Coy got to have skin to skin time with her. You could see the love in his eyes for this little girl. Nothing is more beautiful than a fathers love for his daughter.

Lots of tests were done that night on both Lucy and me. Everything was perfect except she failed her hearing test out of her right ear, they assured us this is normal and that they would do the test again the next day. She passed with flying colors the second time.

We stayed in the hospital for 2 nights. It was such a wonderful experience and we are so blessed by this little girl. We thank God everyday for her. We had an amazing pregnancy, labor, birth and a healthy little baby. 

We want to thank everyone for your thoughts and prayers. We are so blessed to have all of you as friends and family. Lucy is one lucky girl. We love you all and are so thankful.